1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for and a method of developing a film, and in particular, to an apparatus for and a method of developing a film which is suitable for small volume processing.
2. Description of the Related Art
A silver halide color photographic photosensitive material, which has been exposed, is processed by processes for color development, desilvering, washing, stabilization, and the like. Color developer is used in the color development process; bleaching solution, fixing solution, and bleach-fixing solution are used in the desilvering process; drinking water, well water, chemically or physically processed water or ion-exchange water, and distilled water are used in the washing process; and stabilizer is used in the stabilizing process. On the other hand, a black-and-white photographic photosensitive material is processed by a process for black-and-white development instead of color development, and processes for fixing and washing. The temperatures of processing solutions are normally adjusted to 20.degree. C. to 70.degree. C., preferably 30.degree. C. to 60.degree. C., and the color and black-and-white photographic photosensitive materials are immerged and processed in these processing solutions.
Recently, color photographic photosensitive materials are processed in a so-called "mini laboratory", which undergoes small volume processing of photosensitive materials, rather than in a large-scale processing laboratory, which undergoes intensive processing thereof, and a small volume of photosensitive materials are processed dispersively. Moreover, a development processing apparatus of "mini laboratory" size is not necessarily provided at a photo studio. The apparatus can be provided at various types of stores such as a bookstore, a gas station, a laundry, a supermarket, a convenience store, and the like. It is certainly preferable that the surface area of development processing apparatus provided at these stores is small. Further, it is increasingly necessary that the apparatus operates stably and does not require maintenance even if a small volume of photosensitive materials are processed.
As the above-described development processing apparatus, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 7-109503, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 7-74895, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (hereinafter, "JP-A") No. 2-125255, JP-A No. 2-199452 disclose a technology in which a processing tank is designed in a slit-shape and the volume of the tank is made small. Further, JP-A No. 9-292688 discloses a simple and small-volume development processing apparatus.
In a case in which the processing tank is designed in a slit-shape as described above, a processing solution storing portion becomes extremely narrow. Accordingly, it is extremely complicated and difficult to provide heating means at the processing tank. Further, the development processing apparatus is expected to be rarely used and very inactive in a store such as a convenience store in which the apparatus needs to be on standby for a long time (e.g., 24 hours). Moreover, when the development processing apparatus is provided at an entrance or the like and the entrance is opened so as to allow the entering of cold air (cold outside air), the temperature within the processing tank is lowered rapidly due to its small volume.
In the above-described development processing apparatus, when a film is inserted into the processing tank, it is confirmed that the probability of occurring of conveyance deficiency is increased under the condition in which the interior of processing tank is highly humid. It is considered that the deficiency is caused by the fact in which the film does not slide smoothly against the inner walls of the processing tank (e.g., the film adheres to the inner walls to which water such as water droplet adheres).
In order to solve this problem, drawing means for drawing a film into a processing tank may be provided, or a material of inner walls of processing tank may be changed to a material which improves the sliding of a film (e.g., from vinyl chloride to Teflon (trade name for polytetrafluoroethylene manufactured by Du Pont K.K.)). However, it is not preferable since the amount of processing solutions to be used and the cost of processing apparatus are increased.
Also, the interior of processing tank may be dried completely. However, it is difficult and expensive to dry quickly and reliably the sheath-shaped processing tank which has one narrow entrance/exit port for a film.